40 
AMERICAN CROSSBILL. 
comparatively few, as I have never yet met with any of them 
in summer; though lately I took a journey to the Great Pine 
Swamp beyond Pocano mountain, in Northampton county, 
Pennsylvania, in the month of May, expressly for that purpose; 
and ransacked, for six or seven days, the gloomy recesses of that 
extensive and desolate morass, without being able to discover 
a single Crossbill. In fall, however, as well as in winter and 
spring, this tract appears to be their favourite rendezvous ; 
particularly about the head waters of the Lehigh, the banks of 
the Tobyhanna, Tunkhannock, and Bear Creek, where I have 
myself killed them at these seasons. They then appear in 
large flocks, feeding on the seeds of the hemlock and white 
pine, have a loud, sharp, and not unmusical note ; chatter as 
they fly ; alight, during the prevalence of deep snows, before 
the door of the hunter, and around the house, picking off the 
clay with which the logs are plastered, and searching in corners 
where urine, or any substance of a saline quality, had been 
thrown. At such times they are so tame as only to settle on 
the roof of the cabin when disturbed, and a moment after 
descend to feed as before. They are then easily caught in 
traps ; and will frequently permit one to approacli so near as 
to knock them down with a stick. Those killed and opened 
at such times are generally found to have the stomach filled 
with a soft greasy kind of earth or clay. When kept in a 
cage, they have many of the habits of the Parrot; often 
climbing along the wires ; and using their feet to grasp the 
cones in, while taking out the seeds. 
This same species is found in Nova Scotia, and as far north 
as Hudson’s Bay, arriving at Severn River about the latter end 
of May ; and, according to accounts, proceeding farther north 
to breed. It is added by Pennant, that “ they return at the 
first setting in of frost.” 
Hitherto this bird has, as usual, been considered a mere 
variety of the European species ; though differing from it in 
several respects, and being nearly one-third less, and although 
the singular conformation of the bill of these birds, and their 
